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30 software downloads you need this week

Publié: janvier 28, 2012, 6:47pm CET par Mark Wilson

We’ve reached the end of the first month of 2012 and this has been another busy week for software releases. If it seemed a little quiet on the browser updates recently, things changed this week with the release of Opera 11.61 FINAL as well as Opera Portable 11.61. Fans of cutting edge software may be more interested in Opera Next 12.00 build 1256, which is the first update to the beta channel of Opera for quite some time.

When browsing the Internet, speed is often the most important consideration, and Pale Moon is a speed optimized version of Firefox that includes support for extensions. This week saw the release of not only Pale Moon 9.1 and Pale Moon x64 9.1, but also portable versions in the form of Pale Moon x64 9.1 Portable and Pale Moon 9.1 Portable.

Of course, using the Internet does not have to be about simply consuming other people’s website, you may have considered creating an online presence for yourself. This is made incredibly easy with MAGIX Website Maker MX, which can be used to create Flash-based sites even if you have never experimented with Flash before. Whether you are looking to create a site to showcase your digital photos or videos, or you want to create an online store with PayPal support, you’ll find everything you need here. If all of this sounds like hard work, you can always use the internet for entertainment, and TapinRadio 1.51.1 enables to find, listen to and record a massive range of online radio stations.

For all of your offline media needs a codec pack will help to ensure that you do not encounter any video or audio files that you are unable to play. If you already have a version of the K-Lite Codec Pack installed, you should take a look at K-Lite Codec Pack 8.2.0 Update, which includes a number of new additions. If you are yet to discover just how useful a codec pack can be and you need to start from scratch, look no further than K-Lite Codec Pack Mega 8.2.0, K-Lite Codec Pack Basic 8.2.0, K-Lite Codec Pack Standard 8.2.0 or K-Lite Codec Pack Full 8.2.0, which will help you to play a wide range of media formats.

Whether or not you are using your computer to access the Internet, you will make use of a variety of programs. To help make these easier to manage, take a look at Stardock Tiles 1.00, which makes it incredibly easy to organize and navigate through your running applications. Also updated this week were CCleaner 3.15 and CCleaner Portable 3.15, which help you to optimize your system and protect your privacy, with even greater support for a wider range of programs in these latest versions.

Fans of tweaking software will no doubt be impressed with Advanced System Tweaker 0.9.6 (beta) which can be used to tweak and customize your system in a range of ways -- this particular app is extendable through the use of tweaking add-ons that is a nice touch. For day-to-day maintenance of any system, Defraggler 2.09.391 provides you with a great way to ensure that your hard drive is free from fragmentation -- and if you’re constantly moving from one computer to another Defraggler Portable 2.09 can be popped on a USB drive.

It is a good idea to take an active interest in your computer’s hardware, but this is certainly the case if you have overclocked your system. Open Hardware Monitor 0.4.0 is a free tool that can be used to monitor the temperature of your graphics card, processor and hard drive so you can ensure that you aren’t pushing things too far.

If you are more interested in software than hardware, take a look at Speccy 1.15.309, which will tell you everything you need to know about not only the hardware you have, but also the software you have installed; there’s also Speccy Portable 1.15 available for fans of portable software.

It is important to keep an eye on how your computer is being used, but this is especially true in the case of shared computers. History Viewer 4.8 enables you to monitor how other users have been making use of the internet and USB drives so you and easily check for unwanted activity. Hardcore computer users should take a look at Microsoft Desktop Player 1.0.0 (beta), which provides access to library of white papers, podcasts and webcasts that may be of interest.

This week has also seen a number of releases that will be of interest to anyone who uses their computer for work. Computers are expensive enough to start with, so anything that can be done to reduce on-going costs is to be welcomed. LibreOffice Productivity Suite 3.4.5 is a free office suite that includes everything you need to create a range of business and personal documents, and LibreOffice Portable 3.4.5 is also available if you would like to keep your office software on a USB drive to take with you.

If you’re looking for a way to collaborate on work or just store notes online, look no further than Evernote 4.5.3. Developer and anyone with a serious interest in computers and operating systems will be interested in VMware Player 4.0.2 and VMware Workstation 8.0.2, which can be used to run virtual machines on your computer so you can work with older versions of Windows or even install the likes of Ubuntu without the need to have access to a second machine.

That’s it for this week’s highlights. There is sure to be an impressive swathe of releases to look forward to over the next seven days and our roundup will be available this time next week to bring you up to speed on anything you may have missed.

Photo Credit: Sebastian Kaulitzki/Shutterstock
Apple, the enterprise, and the marginalization of the cultists

Publié: janvier 28, 2012, 6:45pm CET par Ed Oswald

For a company left for dead a little over a decade ago, Apple's return to relevancy and in some cases supremacy is stunning. Love or hate the company, few others have accomplished a similar feat. Now one of the last dominoes left to fall -- the enterprise sector -- is set to embrace the platform.

Forrester Research finds that one out of every five IT employees use one or more Apple products at work. This is not completely by their own request: half of all corporations of 1,000 employees or more now issue Macs to at least some of their work force, with an average of a 52 percent increase in deployments slated for 2012.

The more money you make, the more likely you are to use an Apple device for work, following a similar pattern among consumers. Forty-one percent of those making over $150,000 are using Apple products, while 19 percent of those making under $50,000 do so. You are also more likely as an executive to have an Apple device, at 41 percent for those with a position of Director or higher: this drops off to 14 percent for the average employee.

Understanding Apple's Success in IT

At first glance the numbers are not impressive, but looking at these numbers alone without taking into account the past tells half the story. I'm sure if this same survey was done five years ago these adoption numbers would have been in the single digits, and in the lowest income brackets all but negligible. Apple's real success has come in short order.

Here's another important point from the Forrester survey, which echoes a point I've stressed before: Apple's strength among youth is key. The firm finds that younger IT workers are twice as likely to use Macs as their older counterparts, only furthering the argument that the younger generation is driving -- and will drive -- Apple's success for much of the foreseeable future.

Apple seems to be taking the enterprise market seriously. There is a significant number of job listings for sales and marketing positions outside of the consumer sector. Whether this is a function of the change in leadership to Tim Cook -- Steve Jobs disliked having to "cater" to the specific needs of businesses -- or just forced realization that the enterprise really does matter is unknown.

The reason doesn't really matter as it just means more Macs out the door for the Cupertino, Calif. company. This newfound success in any case will only further marginalize the "Mac cultists" that are too-often mentioned when criticizing the company or its products.

Why the Apple Cult No Longer Matters

My colleague Harry McCracken touched on this topic in his column for Time earlier this week. Already with the success in the consumer space, Apple is moving beyond this vocal and obtuse group. Add a healthy dose of enterprise into the mix. Now how important is this group, really?

The argument against the company using the "Apple cult" excuse is less convincing as Apple continues to grow. Every company has a group of core fanatic users or "fanboys". In the Microsoft world, they're called MVPs. In many cases they're just as bad, and just as blind. It just so happens Apple fanboys are more organized.

Oh, and the argument that these Apple cultists have taken over the tech media, generating overly positive coverage? There's a few prominent MVPs/journalists (many you already read) doing the same thing for Microsoft. This argument reminds me of my diatribe on bias in the tech media from last September. The whole tech media is pretty much a mess, but I do digress here.

Either way, the point is that Apple's customer base is becoming so large that these folks really do not matter anymore. Forrester's findings -- as well as other studies and market share numbers -- indicate that Apple is moving into the mainstream. For a company that just had a $46 billion quarter, the implications of this jump to enterprise are huge.

Apple's revenues and profits are only set to grow even more with this untapped market. This in turn will create a positive feedback loop: those that get used to using Apple in the workplace will be more apt to purchase an Apple product for personal use. The benefits here for the Cupertino, Calif. company are just too great to pass up.

I argued (to a good deal of criticism) that Cook needs something to hang his hat on earlier this month. Call me crazy, but making a solid commitment to the enterprise sector is it. The benefits will be long-lasting.

Photo Credit: 1000 Words / Shutterstock